The Jihad Will Be Monetized: Terrorists Love Them Some Gmail

GEN Michael Hayden was quoted today in the Washington Post on two subjects that we’ve been concerned about for a long time on MTP: The inherent unreliability of Gmail as a means for professional communications and how Google profits from the jihad.

After the NSA debacle, anyone who is engaged in attorney client, or doctor patient communcations should take a close look at how much they want to be using Google products to communicaiton with their doctors or lawyers. This of course is not limited to just concerns about how easy it is for the government to snoop on your communications–Google itself is doing it to sell you stuff. Many users buy into Google’s rationale for the free service–I get a product for free, but Google serves me some ads, what’s the big deal? If you thought that before the NSA revelations, do you still think it now? If Google gets to scan the contents of your emails to serve you ads, what’s stopping them from providing that same information to the government under a FISA warrant or no warrant at all? And you want to take a chance that your attorney or doctor communications won’t find their way into the vast government databases in Utah?

GEN Hayden’s comment is particularly revealing:

[GEN Hayden] specifically defended Section 702 of the Foreign Surveillance Intelligence Act (FISA), which provides the legal basis for the PRISM program. In doing so, Hayden claimed “Gmail is the preferred Internet service provider of terrorists worldwide,” presumably meaning online service rather than the actual provider of Internet service. He added: “I don’t think you’re going to see that in a Google commercial, but it’s free, it’s ubiquitous, so of course it is.”

And why do you supposed that GEN Hayden singled out Gmail and seems to know a lot about its use by the jihad?